Neighbourhood watch

To the editor,

Regarding "Where goes the neighbourhood?" your cover story on gentrification in the April 12 issue of The Coast, perhaps this article should have been titled, "Is there a problem with gentrification on Agricola and Gottingen Streets?" What about the middle- class, second- and third-generation families living and owning businesses in what is really considered the north end. Beyond Agricola and Gottingen, there is an entire neighbourhood neglected by spray-painted politics. Let's keep walking north and go to Fort Needham, Mulgrave Park and The Pit! Don't forget about Bash Toulany's pizza, Cousins Restaurant, Willman's Fish and Chips, and Steve Murphy playing VLTs in the Hydrostone corner store in the late 1980s.

As a kid growing up in the north end, the far ends of Agricola and Gottingen might as well have been non-existent. Everything we needed was further north. We had Capitol Store and Valu-Fair, schools, businesses, families, connections. There is an inexplicable bond between north enders that has existed as long as I can remember. Stop labelling us as two streets that have never really been considered the true, die-hard, north end.